Would you like to host an event that is funny, different, educational and has delicious food? Plan a special cheese tasting with Brent Delman, The Cheese Guy. You may know The Cheese Guy from buying his assorted artisan cheeses in the grocery store. The packaging evokes pastoral rural scenes and happy cows, which is quite accurate. The Cheese Guy partners with small farms to make over 50 varieties of cheese, using Delman’s proprietary recipes.

To share his love of cheese and knowledge about the different tastes and textures of kosher cheese, The Cheese Guy is doing special events for groups that entertain and inform while tickling your taste buds. He has some great lines, like this one: What is the best cheese for Passover? Answer: Matzah-rella. OK, Delman thinks that’s funny and so do I. It introduces the topic of cheese, a food that often gets short shrift in American kosher cooking. Cheese is often treated as a minor addition, something to sprinkle on a pizza, or maybe put in an omelet. Israelis have a better relationship with cheese; many varieties are often served as part of a large breakfast spread. In European culture, cheese can be the main course for lunch or dinner, with some good bread, fruit, salads and of course, good wine.

Delman presents tastings that explore different kinds of cheeses and he shows how to pair them with wine or even whisky. “I teach people how to taste cheese and pay attention to flavor notes, aromas, different looks and textures and to use all of their senses,” he said. “I explain how our cheeses are made—all items that have never been kosher before.”

At a Tu B’Shevat wine and cheese pairing event for Yale Jewish graduate and law students, Delman took the seven species and paired them with his cheeses and a selection of Israeli wines. “A traditional pairing with figs is sheep milk cheese,” he explained. “There’s a cheese of mine called Viney Sheep, like a grapevine, that comes from Sardinia, Italy. And it’s soaked in red wine. We paired dried figs and my Viney cheese with a cabernet sauvignon; they needed to be paired with a bold, full-bodied red wine.” A very different pairing was Israeli dates with honey goat cheese. For that combination, Delman chose a gewürztraminer—a full-bodied white that ranges from dry to sweet.

For a cheese and whisky pairing event, which he usually does for men’s clubs, he uses different flavors. “Whisky can have caramel, oak and smokey notes so it pairs well with sharp cheddar, or my nutty artisan cheddar,” he said. He has also done tastings with beer. The Cheese Guy makes a beer-infused cheddar that goes well with a type of beer known as IPA, or India pale ale.

Earlier this month, The Cheese Guy was the first act for a wine and food pairing meal with celebrity chef Albert Bijou and noted Israeli winemaker Amichai Lauria of Shiloh Winery at kosher dairy restaurant Urbana in Brooklyn. He did a charcuterie-style tasting presentation to start the evening before the hors d’oeuvres. Delman paired some of his celebrated cheeses with selections from his line of accoutrements including French cornichons (a type of sweet pickle), fig and apricot preserves and Italian crackers. Cheeses included fresh burrata that he flies in from Italy every two weeks and authentic Normandy brie made from the milk of grass-fed cows.

He is particularly proud of a unique cheese he calls Fromage de Paulette that is similar to a Port Salut or raclette. It has a pungent outside rind with a creamy interior.

While the French name cheeses after saints, Delman, a history buff who loves stories about Jewish heroes and heroines, named this cheese after a French Jewish nurse from Normandy. She saved thousands of orphans during World War II and took them to Palestine, now Israel, where she set up orphanages.

The Cheese Guy takes any dairy event to the next level. Your brit will be a cut above with Delman’s cheese presentation. Cheese can have a starring role in a dairy simcha. For dairy bat mitzvah parties, Delman brings big wheels of Parmigiano and pecorino cheese and carves chunks and slices. When he is next to a pasta station, the chef scoops out some cheese to mix with his creations.

A new (at least to me) entertainment concept is to have a grazing table, where food is laid out for people to nibble at their own pace. Delman lays down butcher paper on a big table and covers it end to end with his goodies. A grazing table can include many varieties of cheese, bowls of olives, hummus, jams, dried fruits, nuts, fresh-cut fruit and fresh-cut vegetables.

You don’t have to become an expert to enjoy cheese; just remember the kinds you like and find similar tastes. You may prefer hard aged cheese with a sharp, savory taste like cheddar, or softer French types like brie and Camembert. Texture has a lot to do with how to use cheese. Harder cheese is not good for melting but great for shredding over pizza or pasta.

Here are a few things to know about The Cheese Guy that make his cheese, and his story, unique:

He partners with farms that have never been kosher, very often Amish farms with just 20-30 Jersey cows that are pasture-raised and well cared for to produce high-quality milk. “I like to know where food comes from and how animals are treated,” he said. “I grew up in the Midwest so I like supporting small farms, helping them thrive and enhancing kosher culture.”

Delman brings his own equipment and works with the farmers for their first few productions.

Cheese is made using cultures. Delman finds substitutes for the typical non-kosher cultures and enzymes.

He experiments with aging and grading cheese in his Yonkers basement and New Jersey warehouse.

Shavuot is a great time for enhanced dairy entertaining. Delman is already booking pre-Shavuot wine and cheese pairing events for shuls and schools. Up your cheese game now to plan show-stopping dairy Shavuot meals.

Visit www.thecheeseguy.com to learn more about cheese, book an event or purchase cheese and accoutrements.